When I first read your post, it really bugged me, and it took me a bit of digging to figure out why.
The part that I think we can all agree on is that we don't like that there is still this intrinsic assumption in our society that women are going to be the primary caregivers. I think we can agree that such an assumption sucks.
Furthermore, I can accept arguments that workplaces should be more flexible with respect to childcare and whatnot.
The part that bothers me is when this is framed as a women's rights issue. I think the problem isn't "women aren't allowed by workplaces to juggle both a career and a family" - the problem is "women are expected to be the primary caregiver". Work places don't let men juggle a career and family either - if you were a guy and worked part time in order to spend time with your family, I guarentee that you're not going to be tapped for promotion over the guy who is working 90 hours a week and spending no time with his family.
In some sense, I guess, this is the affirmative action argument - because women are disadvantaged by this cultural assumption, workplaces should make special allowances for them. Affirmative action has always bugged me in the same way. Shouldn't we NOT make special allowances for them, and instead try to actually fix the problem where it arises, which is the cultural assumption? (With affirmative action, it's fixing the problem in elementary schools, rather than college admissions.) The other thing that bugs me is that it feels like the fix kind of encodes the cultural assumption in it, and propagates it as a result. It's harder to see that happening in the case of childcare and workplaces than in the case of affirmative action in college admissions. If you encode in your college admissions that blacks are disadvantaged, you propagate the stereotype.
I do see the point of view that since it's too hard or it's hard to see how to fix the cultural assumption problem, we should fix the symptom instead. I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do or if there's a better way.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-05-02 06:22 pm (UTC)The part that I think we can all agree on is that we don't like that there is still this intrinsic assumption in our society that women are going to be the primary caregivers. I think we can agree that such an assumption sucks.
Furthermore, I can accept arguments that workplaces should be more flexible with respect to childcare and whatnot.
The part that bothers me is when this is framed as a women's rights issue. I think the problem isn't "women aren't allowed by workplaces to juggle both a career and a family" - the problem is "women are expected to be the primary caregiver". Work places don't let men juggle a career and family either - if you were a guy and worked part time in order to spend time with your family, I guarentee that you're not going to be tapped for promotion over the guy who is working 90 hours a week and spending no time with his family.
In some sense, I guess, this is the affirmative action argument - because women are disadvantaged by this cultural assumption, workplaces should make special allowances for them. Affirmative action has always bugged me in the same way. Shouldn't we NOT make special allowances for them, and instead try to actually fix the problem where it arises, which is the cultural assumption? (With affirmative action, it's fixing the problem in elementary schools, rather than college admissions.) The other thing that bugs me is that it feels like the fix kind of encodes the cultural assumption in it, and propagates it as a result. It's harder to see that happening in the case of childcare and workplaces than in the case of affirmative action in college admissions. If you encode in your college admissions that blacks are disadvantaged, you propagate the stereotype.
I do see the point of view that since it's too hard or it's hard to see how to fix the cultural assumption problem, we should fix the symptom instead. I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do or if there's a better way.